664 
Wild Birds Useful and lujunous. 
depredations. 1 have this year known sad havoc caused by these 
beautiful birds. Nearly fifty young pheasants have been carried 
away from the same place, and three, four, or possibly a largei’ 
number of kestrels have been concerned in the robbery. It is 
quite evident, therefore, that if they once take to visiting the 
coops they must be summarily disposed of, but under no other 
circumstances should they be destroyed. 
Three facts about the kestrels should always be borne in mind. 
The first is that they very frequently bring up their young 
within easy reach of hand-reared game without taking a single 
chick, but, notwithstanding the temptation, continue to lead a 
life of harmless utility. Secondly, it is only diu’ing a veiy brief 
period of the game-birds’ existence that any danger need be 
apprehended from the windhover, for it will not touch them 
except during their helpless infancy. Thirdly, throughout the 
rest of the year the kestrel does incalculable and unmixed good, 
by the destruction of hosts of field-mice and injurious beetles. 
The value of farm produce thus saved from destruction is almost 
beyond estimation. It is, therefore, a short-sighted policy to 
exterminate such beautiful and useful birds because they do a 
certain amount of harm, that harm being confined to a very few 
weeks in the year. 
The Sparrow-hawk, Pigeon-hawk, or Blue hawk {Acciinter 
nisus), is a much more mischievous and less useful bii’d than the 
kestrel. In full plumage the male, which measures about twelve 
inches in length, has the upper surface of a dark bluish-slate 
colour, and the under parts rufous with darker bars. The 
female, which is three inches longer than the male, is dark 
brown above, greyish-white, barred with brown, beneath. The 
young may be known by the I’ust-coloured margins of the 
feathers of the upper parts. 
This short-winged hawk (fig. 2, p. 662) usually builds its 
own nest, but sometimes takes possession of the former abode of 
a crow or inagpie, a larch or other fir-tree being the site most 
frequently selected. The eggs, four to six in number, are bluish- 
white, handsomely marked with rich reddish-brown ; but they 
vary considerably in appearance, some being almost or quite 
unspotted. 
When in search of food it glides rapidly but stealthily 
along woodsides and hedges, and, snatching its quarry from the 
ground or on the wing, carries it away to some quiet spot, 
where it strips and devours it at leisure. It frequently eats 
only a very small portion of its prey. A heap of feathers marks 
the spot where it has dined ; and in most cases it will be noticed 
that the hawk has made use of some tiny mound, or perhaps a 
